RABAT: Experts agree that military action in northern Mali, occupied for months by armed Islamists, is not possible before "September 2013," UN special envoy for the Sahel region Romano Prodi said on Tuesday.
"All the (political and military) experts agree in saying that military intervention could not take place before September 2013," Prodi said during a visit to Rabat, speaking to the press alongside Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani.
"It is necessary to prepare for military action to be credible. My mission is to do everything to ensure peace and avoid war," added the former Italian premier, calling for a "political solution in Mali and the Sahel."
Tuareg rebels and armed Islamists, some with links to Al-Qaeda, took control of the vast northern region of Mali, once considered one of west Africa's most stable democracies, after a March coup in the capital Bamako created a power vacuum there.
But the Islamists quickly sidelined the more secular Tuareg fighters and have set about imposing a brutal form of Islamic law in the north.
Regional west African bloc ECOWAS agreed last week to send 3,300 troops to Mali to wrest back control of the Islamist-held north. The plan must go before the UN Security Council by the end of the month.
European Union foreign ministers agreed in principle on Monday to send a military mission to train Mali combat units.
The Moroccan foreign minister said his country was not "enthusiastic" about military action in Mali, adding that it preferred a "political resolution" to the crisis.
Othmani said the kingdom wished to explore "all peaceful solutions" with the support of the neighbouring countries and ECOWAS.
During a visit to Algiers earlier this month, the UN special envoy said military intervention in northern Mali should only be used as a "last resort."
Algeria has always favoured dialogue to resolve the crisis in Mali, its southern neighbour, with Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci saying on Monday that the situation in Mali was "clearer now(that) a political solution has been accepted as a priority."
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